


Lesson Three

by ReyNimanSolo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: AU Last Jedi, Alternative Ahch-To, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Reylo - Freeform, Slow Burn, Tags Will Change To Mature, force awakening, teen rating for now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-13 11:02:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16891344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReyNimanSolo/pseuds/ReyNimanSolo
Summary: Instead of casting away the Skywalker lightsaber, Luke makes a very different decision and changes the course of the galaxy. AU of Rey's time on Ahch-To in The Last Jedi and beyond.Always remember that in cannon, Luke only gave Rey two lessons. There is one lesson remaining and only one person left in the galaxy who can teach it to Rey.





	1. Secret Things

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter will be clearly tagged with any changes to maturity level relating to sex and violence. 
> 
> Chapter 1: Teen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Over time, she’d built an uneasy alliance with Plutt and another shift had happened, marking a different passage of time. This one centred entirely around the physical. She’d gone from skinny to the point of skin stretched over knobbed bone to having, if not extra, at least enough. Bones always protruded at the ankles and knees, hips and shoulders, along her spine, but as time passed, small pads of fat filled the front of her tunic and spread her hips. With the change came the first real acknowledgment of the hum, restless and confusing. She’d felt herself speeding inexorably toward some inescapable, unknown point.

The melodic coos of porg-song fished her from the dark sea of dreams. Rey’s eyes blinked open to find the now-familiar edges of rough stone that made up the dome above her sleeping pallet. Despite the cold that settled itself into her ankles and hips and shoulders each frigid night, the corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile.

Three lessons, Luke had said, with two already delivered.

_And, inside you?_

_Inside me...that same Force_

Lesson one. He’d given a name to something that had always been there, vibrating in the background for as long as she’d been able to recall. It had lain dormant and she had paid it no heed, too busy with the business of surviving the harsh realities of an abandoned planet to notice it. But now it was awake. And now, she knew what it was.

Rey thought of Jakku, where time had no meaning. Her endless scratches etched into the rusting durasteel of a long dead war too numerous to mark the passage of time in any meaningful way. Even so, time had moved on, its passage measured in other, more subtle ways.

There had been no tears after that first terrible day. Her first lesson in survival had been in the scarcity of water. Her second had been to fight. Hard. On Jakku, crying was a luxury no one could afford; fighting something no one could live without.

She’d been small but her refusal to be an easy target by striking back with ferocity had won her the respect of older, more seasoned junkers. Though they never helped her, and often stole from her, over time they mostly left her alone.

Once she’d no longer had to spend each minute defending herself, she’d been able to focus on the inner workings of Niima Outpost. Her new status had allowed her some time to sit and observe. It hadn’t taken her long to understand that, if one was hungry enough, there were secret things buried deep within Jakku’s barren sands that could be traded for sustenance.

The memory of the first time she’d successfully traded a salvaged part for what passed as food tightened her chest. She’d been on the verge of starvation. She hadn’t yet thought to start marking the days then, but she guessed now that she had probably not eaten anything for a least five days. A long time for anyone, let alone one so young and already so vulnerable.

When she’d tried her hand at scavenging, her small stature had granted her access to places none of the other junkers dared to reach. It hadn’t taken her long before the fear and claustrophobia forced her to snatch up the first loose piece of junk she could find before birthing herself back into the light.

At the trading post, she’d waited her turn for a chance at food. When it came, if her stomach hadn’t already shriveled up to nothing, it would have crowded itself against the back of her throat as she pulled her offering free of her satchel.

Unkar Plutt had leveled his greasy gaze on her through the bars of his bartering cage.

She had had to lift herself up on tiptoes and practically jump to slide her offering through the slot, knowing full well that he could steal it without paying her anything.

Her eyes had met his. She’d felt them lock tight and the hum, the one that often kept her up at night, restless and unsettling, had spiked within her. She’d pushed it in his direction.

“Worth at least one half—"

_< FULL>_

"—portion.” Her voice, low and controlled, willed him to _please gods_ provide for her.

And if he didn’t?

She’d already devised a backup plan. If he didn’t give her a quarter portion at least, she would fade into the shadows until she could rob someone else of theirs.

“Mhmm...a capacitor bearing. Good value, mmmmh. Bring me more of these, girl.” His eyes had flicked over her head, already on to his next customer.

Panic had bloomed, bright and angry. She’d been just about to scream at him to pay her when Plutt had slammed down a _full_ portion of hydrolised food.

She’d snatched it and before anyone could stop her, she’d torn one of the plastiseal bubbles open, dumping its contents straight into her mouth. The fine dusty powder had torn into her lungs and she had coughed much of the food out in a wet grey-green cloud. The rest she had swallowed which turned out to have even worse consequences. Her stomach had swelled up and she’d ached for days, unable to move, thankful for the protection she’d found within the rusted shell of a fallen Imperial AT-AT on the outskirts of the Graveyard of Ships.

As soon as she'd begun to feel well, she'd gone back to work, using every advantage she could find. The first thing she's done was to build herself a weapon, a staff that extended her fighting reach far enough out that it put her beyond the range of most combatants. Soon the stealing had tapered off as most began to give the quick, savage end of her quarterstaff a wide berth.

The first years had been hardest and also most rewarding in ways she appreciated now that she had time for recollection. Her smile grew wider as she let herself remember all that had happened to lead her to this place and this time and these people.

Life on Jakku had settled into a steady rhythm, one that afforded moments where she could sit and be. She’d used that time to improve her skills. Languages had come first. She found the astromech language easiest and the Shyriiwook not only most difficult but also the most expressive. She had no aptitude for the sounds and had to settle for simply listening and knowing that she could never do it justice.

Next, she'd taught herself to read Aurebesh using the scraps of old holovids buried deep in the rotting husks of Galactic warships. The schematics had come next and she'd found herself utterly absorbed in reading them. She had learned to identify pieces and parts that would be most valuable. It hadn't been long before she'd become one of Plutt's best junkers.

Over time, she’d built an uneasy alliance with Plutt and another shift had happened, marking a different passage of time. This one centred entirely around the physical. She’d gone from skinny to the point of skin stretched over knobbed bone to having, if not extra, at least enough. Bones always protruded at the ankles and knees, hips and shoulders, along her spine, but as time passed, small pads of fat filled the front of her tunic and spread her hips. With the change came the first real acknowledgment of the hum, restless and confusing. She’d felt herself speeding inexorably toward some inescapable, unknown point.

The biggest change had come the day she'd had her personal scavenging best. Though she wouldn't know for sure until she got paid, by Rey's calculation she'd harvested at least 35 portion’s worth of destabilised coaxium.

When she’d gotten to the cage, instead of portions, Plutt had paid her with a broken down speeder that barely ran enough to get moving. She'd been outraged that she'd been cheated out of her haul of food. She'd called him a few choice names but Platt had held his ground.

She'd spun on her heel to gather what she'd earned, her mind already on trying to figure out how much the speeder parts would fetch when she dismantled it. And she had dismantled it, growing ever more excited as it came apart in her hands. The experience had brought together all of what she’d learned from the schematics and made it real. She'd tried to put it back together and couldn't. She'd given up and traded in all the parts that had value and left the rest to the steelpeckers and nightwatchers.

Soon after, Plutt had again paid her with a vehicle. The second had still been rough but it ran much better than the first. On the ride back home, Rey found herself making notes about how to fix the speeder. It would need a more powerful engine but first she'd need to fix the smaller things like leaking fuel lines and sand-stripped bearings.

It hadn’t been long before Plutt began paying her with a mix of portions and parts for her speeder that she couldn’t otherwise scavenge. The speeder had changed everything. Farther. Faster. Larger salvage items. He began to let her work on some of the junked out craft that littered the sands around Niima Outpost. She realised now that those had been some of her best days on Jakku.

Though Unkar Plutt had helped her, he had made it a point every so often to remind her of her place. Times where he’d underpay the value of something. Rey frowned as another realisation came to her. More and more, Plutt had shortchanged her and, more puzzling, he’d started a pattern of not paying her at all.

Another thought, this one sharp and poignant. Perhaps Plutt had purposefully begun withholding portions in an attempt to help her move on. Rey’s eyes stung in a way she’d only recently become reacquainted to; tears. For Unkar Plutt. Who Rey now understood had been as close to family as she’d ever had on Jakku. He had looked out for her without being overt and had likely saved her from certain death.

His subtle influence had primed her so that by the time Finn had crash landed into her life, her thoughts had already begun to turn over the idea of leaving Jakku. She hadn’t yet truly admitted it to herself at the time but she knew now that that had been the direction she’d been speeding toward. And sweet stars in the galaxy, that was why it had been so _easy_ to fly away with Finn and leave everything she’d ever known behind.

_Inside me, that same Force_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This alternative storyline for The Last Jedi has been bouncing around in my head for a while. I've some time to pursue it and see where it leads. No guarantees that the story will come to a satisfactory conclusion other than there will be smut. Heavy, Reylo smut.


	2. Black Hole Suns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey took careful steps, approaching with reverence until she stood in the beam of light. Enshrined in the belly of the sacred library, she felt sheltered. The darkness dared not encroach here. Its safe embrace allowed her to think of Kylo Ren. 
> 
> Three times now he had come to her unheeded, each encounter more confusing, more intense than the last. His eyes, they always came first. Haunted eyes so full of unimaginable need and suffering. Black hole suns piercing through millions of light years until she was sure she would never escape their alluring, endless darkness.
> 
> What did he want that she could possibly give?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Each chapter will be clearly tagged with any changes to maturity level relating to sex and violence. Main tags will also be updated.
> 
> Chapter 1: Teen  
> Chapter 2: Teen

Rey rubbed her knuckles against her eyes, clearing the unexpected tears she’d shed for Unkar Plutt. Outside, she heard the Caretakers going about their morning chores. Most days, Rey preferred to avoid them and left before they arrived. She’d spent longer than she’d meant to reliving the past.

After tidying her hair, she slipped past the blanket separating her space from outside and into warm sunshine. Rey couldn’t help but smile. The Caretakers all stopped and she felt their stares.

“Good morning,” she said, and was shocked to realise it was the first time she’d ever acknowledged them directly. Her cheeks burned from more than sunshine.

They each gave a small bow and went back to their chores. She vowed to do a better job of recognising their contributions.

Rey’s smile faded. The door to Luke’s hut was closed. She made to knock but before she could, one of the Caretakers blocked her path, its wide amphibious mouth open in a moist threat. Shocked at being challenged, she drew back. None of them had ever engaged her face-to-face before. Rey took the hint and left him be. When he was ready to give the third and final lesson, Luke would come find her. In the meantime, she wanted another look at the Jedi texts.

Rey turned away toward the stairs leading up without looking back. All her time spent wandering across the island had built her strength in new ways. She felt faster and lighter. Her trek up the stairs to the island’s pinnacle, three hundred and twenty-seven steps, took hardly any time at all where before it used to feel insurmountable.

No longer did her breath hitch, nor a sharp stitch form in her side, or burn across her thighs. Today, she scaled the stones two at a time, arriving atop the island barely out of breath. Before her, the land dipped away into a vast, shallow bowl filled with verdant meadow. Tall lush grass rolled in green waves, mimicking the ocean’s rhythm under the incessant push of the wind. Rey stood along the outside edge and let herself feel how the island gathered energy to it, almost as if the ancient Uneti tree served as some Force-sensitive antenna.

She stepped off the edge and immersed herself in that same energy, her path clear as she headed toward the ancient library. Halfway there, the neverending fog surrounding the tree began winding its way around her ankles. The closer she got, the thicker and higher the fog rose. When it reached her hips, the base of the steps came into sight.

All around her, whisper-song lilted out in words she couldn’t quite understand.

Rey paused to let the Force move around her. For a brief moment, the voices cleared.

_There is no emotion…there is only passion_

The rest of the words dissolved back into whispers. Rey made short work of the remaining path’s steep rise, pausing only at the tree’s coarse threshold. She let her eyes adjust to the gloom within. Twisted roots and limbs formed a tunnel much deeper than the physical tree was capable of. And at the end, the ancient texts sat bathed in eternal sunlight that shown through the heavy mists clinging to the outside of the Uneti tree.

Rey took careful steps, approaching with reverence until she stood in the beam of light. Enshrined in the belly of the sacred library, she felt sheltered. The darkness dared not encroach here. Its safe embrace allowed her to think of Kylo Ren.

Three times now he had come to her unheeded, each encounter more confusing, more intense than the last. His eyes, they always came first. Haunted eyes so full of unimaginable need and suffering. Black hole suns piercing through millions of light years until she was sure she would never escape their alluring, endless darkness.

What did he want that she could possibly give?

Her mind skipped past the previous encounters, going straight for their last one.

She’d listened as Luke recounted the night Ben Solo had turned and embraced the darkness. When Luke had finished, she’d pledged her allegiance to him. Instead of welcoming her, he had turned away, sullen and silent.

_You need a teacher… I can’t teach you_

The anger and hurt of his rejection had taken all her strength to contain. They’d stood that way, him with his back to Rey, until long after the suns had set. At last, she’d grown weary of waiting and taken her leave.

A chill wind had bitten against her exposed skin as she’d stormed across the meadow atop the island. Emotions churning, she’d heard the dark place beneath the island calling.

_Come…_

It had made her realise she had one last place where she might find the answers she sought. She hadn’t yet learned what the dark side had to show her. And she’d been more than ready to hear what it had to say.

She’d stopped mid-step when she’d sensed his now-familiar presence. It had been like a change in the weather behind her.

Gooseflesh broke out on her arms even now as she recalled turning to find him half undressed. The image had seared itself into her memory, rendering every detail of him in vivid recall.

Kylo had stood, stripped to the waist, the pale skin of his broad back bright against the dark durasteel walls. When he’d turned toward her, she hadn’t been able to keep her eyes from tracing the angry scar she’d given him as it snaked down his face and neck and across his collarbone.

He had been free of everything that made him Kylo Ren. He’d no longer worn his armour. His chest and arms and hands had been bare. He hadn’t been carrying his lightsaber. Exposed and unarmed, his vulnerability had been breathtaking.

His scars—he’d wanted her to see them. Especially the two she’d given him. They served as reminders that she had inflicted her own damage upon him, all without knowing anything about him. Though it hadn’t been the only reason, it had been part of why he’d refused to cover up. She knew that now.

Twice he had implored her to ask Luke about the night he turned to the dark side. He’d wanted her to hear Luke’s version first. He had needed them both to hear what Luke had led everyone else to believe.

_…the legacy of the Jedi is failure…_

“…said when he confronted you, you turned on him. And that, when he came to, the temple was burning. He said you slaughtered everyone except for him and vanished,” she’d recounted.

Still and silent, his eyes had held hers with unerring conviction.

“No.” There had been only unflinching acceptance in Kylo’s voice when he’d countered Luke’s version. “He’d sensed my power. As he senses yours, and he _feared_ it.” Panic had sharpened his words.

_… Ben can see his uncle has gone too far to turn back. He will not falter or hesitate; rather he will bring his lightsaber down and cleave his nephew in two while he sleeps…_

Kylo’s retelling had left no doubt that one of them had been lying. She’d wanted desperately to cling to the illusion that hope lived on in the old Jedi Master so she had passed judgement on Kylo and accused him of bearing false witness.

She knew now that Kylo had never lied to her, that he had nothing to gain by starting now.

Anger flared to life beneath her ribs and, quick on its cooling heels, the pain of betrayal.

Luke should have been the one nurturing her, helping her to understand, to find her way in all this. Instead, it was Kylo who offered the temptation of answers.

If Luke had lied about why Ben Solo turned to the dark side, what other lies had he told? And, what of his so-called lessons? Were they lies, as well?

_…the legacy of the Jedi is failure…_

_Dear gods…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So far, this story is only a good bit of rehash off the original. Still resetting the stage before diverging into new territory. The next chapter will see some very new, very significant differences. Let the games begin :)


End file.
